Latest / Rick Manis Ministries Podcast / The Influence and Expression of Grace // Part 1: Repentance Toward God

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The Influence and Expression of Grace // Part 1: Repentance Toward God · Rick Manis Ministries Podcast

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Already had a mouthful to say, and then during the worship, I'm um I'm hearing Chris talk about how he how God has never changed his mind about us, how he's never altered his course, he's always loved us, he's always been the same, and that's something we it's good for us to look at and to remember that God is love.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: From the beginning, love created us to be an object of his love, someone, something, to receive his goodness, his abundance, his love.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And uh if you ever have any question about the mystery of life, that really is the simple answer right there.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: You're here to be the recipient of God's goodness, his abundance, and his love.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was talking to someone yesterday, and I and and and and uh he was talking about how they when they first found Grace Church, and and God was already moving, moving in their hearts about about God, and they were seeing God differently within themselves, but they weren't surrounded by an atmosphere that was uh in agreement with with some of those things.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know how many of you ever wrestled with that to where it's like I'm I'm starting to see things differently here now, and and but I don't have a lot of people around me agreeing with that, and what makes me know that I'm really right and the whole rest of the world is wrong, and and these things are going on, and that's God revealing himself to us.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe He's he's He's endeavoring to do that, he's he's He's doing that with with everybody and wherever they're at to the degree that that they allow that to take place.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh and uh said that he peeked into the videos of Grace Church, and there was one month where I was speaking, Matt was speaking, Bill was speaking, and Clark was speaking, four different people uh in this one month, and he's like, wow, he says, you guys were saying this stuff out loud, to be able to say that stuff out loud.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: And and so I'm I'm grateful this morning that we can come to a place where we're we can hear some things out out loud.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's kind of like remember when Paul was talking about um uh when he went caught up to the third heaven, he heard some things, and he and he said he heard some things that are uh uh heard some things in heaven that were not lawful for man to utter.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, what that speaks to me is it's it's it's not that it was unlawful at all, because it was certainly lawful in heaven to say it, right?
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: What he heard, he heard in heaven.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: So they were they were saying it there, but it wasn't right or in man's world to say those things here.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I thank God for the liberty to talk about the goodness of God.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: I love doing this, I love taking the opportunity in a few minutes to talk about the goodness of God.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: You just you can't go wrong with it.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I want to get into this morning, and by the way, uh this is this is the first of a three-parter.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'll be here the next two weeks also.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the first of a three-parter, and I'm calling it the influence and the expression of grace.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: The influence and the expression.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: And part one is I want to focus on um uh repentance toward God.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And we love to talk about that word repentance once we find out what it means because it's it makes so much sense and it liberates us.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Most a lot of us know that that that word in the Greek is metanoia, which simply means to change your mind or to change your thinking or or think again about this.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: Look at this again and change it.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: And and when you when you when you look it up and you you study, this word is used a lot.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's used in business now sometimes.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it means like a change of a change of a way of thinking that changes your trajectory.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And many will use this word metanoia.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: So when we talk about repentance toward God, we're talking about changing our mind about God.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Has that happened to anybody here?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Has your mind ever been changed about God?
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: Mine has been changed a lot over the years, and I'm I'm so grateful for it.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: But there's a verse in Acts chapter 20, verse 21, that uses this phrase, and it says, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our love Jesus Christ.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: And when you know that word metanoia, that it means to change your mind, it doesn't mean to do penance.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh, it means to change your mind toward God.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is what he's talking about here.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Paul had a metanoia, didn't he?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: Paul changed his mind.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and as his mind was, or really, you know, Jesus changed his mind.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's really how it happened.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus changed his mind, but it changed the whole trajectory of Paul's life.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: He had a mind change.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_00: He had a metanoia.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: A metanoia comes in many ways.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe when you first fell in love with the person that you're married to now, that changed the trajectory of your life.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: You had a metanoia.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you weren't in love one day, and then the next day you met somebody and you knew that you that you felt this way, you knew this was going on, and you changed your your mind.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Some of you may probably might have sworn that you would never get married, but look at you now.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: I heard someone say the other day, um, some people say that I'm obsessed with Phil Collins, but take a look at me now.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: The example of gosh, the the example, uh, excuse me, the definition of uh a definition of grace that we hear a lot, and we hear it because it's one of the it's one of the phrases you'll find when you look in Strong's Concordance of Greek words, is that grace is the divine influence on the heart and its expression through our life.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I love that because it shows the twofold work there.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's something that comes to us and influences us, but it's also something that shows out of us, isn't it?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: And um many of us here today are testimonies of that.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: How not only did it change our, uh, it influenced us and changed our way of thinking, change what we knew, change what we believed, but it also changed how we how we acted, it changed how we responded to things, it changed how we did life.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: I know that certainly has happened happened with me.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's a verse in John chapter 3, verse 7, that I want to use here today and give this, give an illustration of how this grace comes to influence our heart and then express itself uh uh uh from us.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: John chapter 3, verses 7 and 8 says, Jesus speaking, do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again, or born from above, or born from the first, is what the definition is.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Born of the spirit, really, is what we're talking about.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: You must be born again or born of the spirit.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you can't tell where it comes from or where it goes.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: So is everyone who is born of the spirit.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I love this.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's given it, he gives us a picture of the wind coming from somewhere.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: And look at it this way: the wind comes from somewhere, it comes to you.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's the influence upon your heart.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: That the wind comes from somewhere, and that somewhere is from God, from heaven, from life, absolute life, from love, from him, from all that he entails.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: It comes from eternity, comes from there.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it comes to us, to our hearts, and it influences our heart.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, but it goes somewhere.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: It also goes somewhere.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: So look at it this way today.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: What's going on is the Spirit of God is operating in us and toward us, and and it's and it and it's and it's kind of like a like a wind that comes to us to influence us, and it and it changes us, changes our thinking, changes the way we look at things, but it but it go it keeps on going and it changes how we look, it changes how we act, and it changes how we live.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: And and and if this is the eternal spirit that has never changed his mind about us and has always always been pursuing mankind, always has been working to influence the heart of the people, and thank God for Jesus, because now we get it and we understand it, we just receive it uh uh with uh with with faith so gracefully, we we we receive that that that that spirit and it does that influence, but it's going somewhere.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna take a look at that.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, these three parts that I'm gonna be talking about will talk a lot about these different uh ways that it influences us and that it changes us.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And a good good thing to to be aware of is that is that it has come from heaven, from God, and where is the wind going?
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to the same place it comes.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's going to heaven or God.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: And by that I mean whatever it's producing, whatever that influence is producing, the expression of it is going to look like that.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: For we shall be like him when he is revealed, 1 John chapter 3, because we'll see him as he is.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a great hope that there's a lot of room here for this to get a whole lot better, for a lot of wonderful changes to come to our hearts and minds and to come through us.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and and and no wonder creation is is longing, looking for the manifestation of the children of God or the revelation of the children of God, because something is being expressed and is going to continue to be expressed even better and better in the days ahead.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And it's this this this spirit of God that that Jesus likens to the wind.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: The wind is moving you.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Uh uh examples here.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, first let me talk about this.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: How do we renew our minds?
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: There's a verse I want to get to that talks about this.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, this influence on our heart.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: A question that I get a lot of times is, Rick, how do I renew my mind?
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: My first part of the answer is, you do not renew your mind.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now we know the verse there that tells us to not be transformed, or excuse me, not to be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: So we embrace that, but when you look at it, it's really not us that does it.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's not, it's not based upon our ability to make this thing right in our brains.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's not.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: There is a part that we play, and that's the receiving of it, inclining our ear to it, choosing it, wanting it, you know.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: But but as far as the work that it's done there, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, excuse me, Titus chapter 3, verse 5, according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um 2 Corinthians 4.16 says, even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what I want us to see right here is that something is happening to you right now, today.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't care if you think that you're dense, if you think you're hard-headed, if you think you're hard of hearing spiritually, uh, you think other people get it easier than you, whatever, something is still happening to you.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: Your God, your father, the Spirit with you and in you.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: He is moving.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: He is He is uh the wind is blowing in you.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Judy and I were talking on the way here about a in a time that I refer to a lot when I was praying, kind of like Paul was when he when he's when he was when he asked the Lord to remove something from him three times.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: He kept asking because he wasn't getting the answer that he wanted.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: And and I have heard lots of teaching take where they take that from different angles, and I think there's good things in in all of them.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh sometimes I I consider, what if it's something that I can relate to?
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: What if it's something that something about me that I just wanted to change?
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't think it was very Christ-like, and I and I and I can remember locking myself in a hotel room praying that so that so I can get this right, say, God, change this about me.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: And uh and and I feel like I can relate to Paul saying, God, take this from me, just take it from me.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like it, you don't like it.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: To agree, case closed, take it now.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, take it.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and and his answer to Paul was, My grace is sufficient for you.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember being in a hotel room, locked up myself up for three days, praying about certain things like this.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: And and the Lord really did make it known to me in words that I heard from within my spirit that said, Son, you are going to grow.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm weaving my ways in you.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm not going to do an overnight thing.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, the way I heard it was, I could just do that.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: But this is relational.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm doing something in you that as this thing is woven into you, becomes a part of you, it'll be something that you live, it'll be something you breathe, it'll be something you know.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: It won't just be something where you need another deliverance later on from.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's doing a good work.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: And he was doing, even though I was feeling like, oh, I'm struggling with these things, God was still with me and doing something with me all time all the time.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: The wind was blowing, and right then, even with that word, he changed my mind about what I thought about it because I thought God was probably frustrated with me.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because I hadn't been changing quick enough.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: And what he told me assured me that he was good with me, that he was very patient.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: And he wasn't condemning me, wasn't holding anything over me.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, when I talk about the epiphany that I had of grace after many years of a religious mixture type of thing that was confusing me in so many situations, making me feel not good enough, making me feel like I was always coming short.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And there, no matter how much I how good I was, and I wasn't living an immoral life, and I was at in church every time the doors were, I was pastoring a church.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was I was praying lots and lots.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: I was fasting, I would, you know, I wasn't, I was trying.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: And and when I and after many years of that, I had this epiphany that essentially my grace is sufficient for you.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: When I laid on that floor, it was made, it was made known to me.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: The Spirit Himself did it.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't convince myself of it.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I laid on that floor and was telling my Heavenly Father, I quit, I give up, I don't have enough strength to do any of these things or to be any of these things.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe it was my honesty.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I finally had come to a place where I could just be face to face with God instead of always trying to do what I thought he wanted me to do.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was because I was able to just get real and say, God, this is really who I am.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just too weak.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: Something that God had known from the beginning about all of us and loved us in all of that.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he always wanted to be our supply, our life, our everything.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I realized he wasn't asking me to be strong.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to be to be my strength.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't asking me to be Mr.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Big Big Faith.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: He wanted to be the supply of that.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't even demanding that I love him in the way that I thought he was, but he was wanting me to receive his love.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: And how many of you know that when that happens, there it starts to become an expression from you.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: You'll respond eventually to where you just you just start loving him.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: And this is an example of the wind that was influencing my heart.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: I beg I began to change or repent toward God.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: I changed the way I viewed him.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: I began to see him more like he really was.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the very basics of it.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I know people are like, grace, grace, grace, grace.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Why has everything got to be grace, grace, grace?
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because that was that was foundational to me.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: That was a big deal to me.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: Something, and I've and I probably mentioned the word grace every time I ever spoke.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Quoted the same scriptures, his grace is sufficient.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I had wrong ideas about it and wrong definitions about it in my mind, and and and and and the the influence of the Spirit allowed me to see somehow that what God did, the expression of grace, which was Jesus, his death, burial, and resurrection in a love that was so much that he would do that, and all that that entailed.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw, and I thought, that grace, you that you mean that grace is enough for me, that you're not you're not demanding anything from me?
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I I just began to see what I couldn't see so clear.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: The divine influence on my heart was happening, and somehow things that I had quoted became a reality to me because of that influence, and I began to believe that who God was was enough, that what Jesus had done was more than enough, and I believed it, I felt it, and as I laid on that floor with the intention of quitting, I got up with a new fire in my eyes.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I can do this, I can still be weak if God's okay with this.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I felt like he was more than okay, and that started, that meant a lot of things.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's one thing led to another.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I started thinking, if his grace is sufficient for me in all of my weakness, then there really, really, truly is no condemnation in Christ.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's a verse I had read many times.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: But now the divine influence is is happening to me, and I'm seeing it in a new way.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, no condemnation, that means zero, not nothing, not no way, not know how.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I and and like, now what does that mean?
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's when it can get kind of scary to the brain.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: But thank God for the divine influence on the heart.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because I start looking at that and I'm like, what does that mean?
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: No condemnation.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: So if I were to, which is something I would never do, but I was like, what if I were to go out and do this?
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: And if I did it, there would be no condemnation in Christ.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I started to believe it.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I was tasting the goodness of God.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: The divine influence was doing what my brain wasn't able to do, what my willpower wasn't able to make me know.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful wind of the spirit, the divine influence was doing what I couldn't do.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: My mind was being renewed.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: And for 20 years, I could never have, I never was successfully, successful in renewing my mind to those truths.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: When Jesus said that the Spirit will lead you and guide you into truth, he will take of my glory and he'll reveal it to you.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he was doing to me and has been doing it ever since the wind continues to blow, and it's bringing changes not only in my thought, but in the way that the way that I live.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: If there's no condemnation, that means to me, here's here's changes.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Repentance about God is happening to me.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: That means that He loves me and makes no demands upon me at all.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's scary to a brain that was thinking the way it was.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: But the divine influence is overpowering, is showing something that my brain could that didn't make sense to my brain, just like the word says that the natural man or the natural mind cannot get the things of God, it cannot receive them.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's foolishness to him.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: There cannot be a love with no with no demands.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: It says it has to make demands, or else these weak and evil and corrupt uh people of mankind they'll do whatever they want to do.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: You ever heard that one?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: They'll do whatever they want to do, and so I had to deal with that.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: So what does this mean?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: Does this mean if there's a love with no demands?
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Can I do whatever I want to do, Lord?
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now here's one that'll spook everybody.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe not a lot of you guys, but maybe.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: Does that mean that?
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: It means that I could live any way I want to.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, see, this is the divine influence of the heart had to get this to.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: I could live any way that I want to.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you something else.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: I do.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: My wife will tell you probably I live exactly how I want to, just about.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because, you know, I'm the kind that if I don't want to, I just I just won't.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: I don't feel the compulsions that I used to feel, or the fears of like, oh, what are people gonna think?
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: Or what if I, you know, I just there's there's a freedom that comes, and it's not that you don't care about people, in fact, you care more about them in a way that's far better.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's part of the expression that comes out.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Does it mean that I can live any way I want to?
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: I found out the answer is yes.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was scary to think of that at first, but the divine influence moved me.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: You see what's happening?
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: It moved me.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't moving myself.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I was resisting in my brain.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: See, I was.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Was not renewing my own mind.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: My brain was resisting these things, but something was happening in me.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: Do y'all relate to this?
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: Something has happened to you.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is why you, this is why you can put up with people talking about God that's so good.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because something happened in you, and is and most of our stories, when we talk to each other, most of our stories have some very similar things going on.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: We were here and something started happening to us.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Something started happening in us.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: We started seeing things differently, and we started seeing things, we started seeing things that are not lawful for natural men to utter, it seems.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Can you live any way you want to?
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, we've been living all kinds of ways, and while we were yet sinners, God loved us and died for us.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Never changed his mind one bit, for I'm convinced that nothing, nothing can separate us from that love of God that's in Christ Jesus.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing, nothing, nothing.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: And the good thing is that this influence has an expression, and that expression is like him.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: That expression is love.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: And we understand that the great commandment is in love God and love your neighbor, because that's simply the heart of God, and that's and that's the heart of God that's influencing us, and that's what happens.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I had always wanted to love God more, and now I get to.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: So yes, I get to live the way I want to, finally, because of grace.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: As some sinner that couldn't get a hold of him, of his old tendencies and control them for the glory of God.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to live, I wanted to live godly.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to live a good life.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to, I would pray so often, God, I just want to see what you see.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: I want to feel what you feel, do what you do.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: And what's going happening right now?
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: There's an influence that's happening, and what I see happening is that that I am more automatically now loving God.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you, I there's it's years ago I used to pray, Lord, help me to love you.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't prayed that prayer in years and years and years.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's a thought that doesn't even come.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's when you wake up, this influence has now has an expression that when I wake up, it's it's almost the first thing that comes out of my mouth most of the time is, God, I love you.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's a natural thing that came because, thank God, for the influence of his spirit that that happened to me.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't make myself love God.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I tried and couldn't.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all know what I'm talking about.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I could love him because I can enjoy him now.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't scared of him.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't feel like he was disapproving.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: He took all of that away.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: The Spirit caused me to repent toward God, to change my mind about God.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I love the most, these most beautiful thoughts that I have about our Heavenly Father now.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's so wonderful to know that flowing through your heart and through your mind are these amazing thoughts, and they just keep getting bigger, and you and you talk about it more, and it's like not only that, but God's even gooder than that.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: But that's a picture of how how of how it started affecting and changing, and and I started to realize, wow, that's how the empowerment of this thing really really works, is that it has this natural thing that's going on.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Now, now now, briefly, what's our part to it?
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Our thing is is I guess I tell people a lot of times just be still and know sometimes, because there is an influence that's happening.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: And there are many voices in the world, right?
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of noise going on, but there is that still small voice, and it really does sound like that to me, I think.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: And there is that influence, and there's these things that if you're still struggling with any of this, the natural mind will do that for a little while.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's foolishness.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't make sense in our merit system world, it doesn't make sense in our discipline and reward and punishment type of world that we've grown accustomed to.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is a new kingdom.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the influence of the heart, what's it doing?
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Somehow, how does it take somebody as stupid as you?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was going normally I say stupid as me, but I just flipped it this time.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_00: Hoping some of you can relate.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: How does God get you from there?
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe some of you say there was a time I didn't even believe God.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Or some maybe some of you did, but you just thought all these horrible things.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: And how did God get you from there to here?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful, and somebody who knew you somehow was able to influence your heart to get you this far.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: And good news is the wind is going somewhere.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: There's a whole lot farther.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: We shall be like him.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: I saw if there's nothing to separate me from God, nothing I do, nothing I think.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: If I do the most horrible thing tomorrow, he's right there with me, loving me, blessing me, and favoring me.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: I used to hear preachers, I don't know, may it's hard for me to relate, and I don't understand everything.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: I know, but but I hear preachers talk about how, you know, God told me to preach and said if I don't, that that he's gonna kill me, or you know, I'll be dead in two years, or whatever.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, you know, you hear those stories, and I think, you know what?
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_00: I honestly believe, and maybe I'm wrong, but the way I see and feel about God, um I feel like I'm called to do this.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: I've been doing it in public ministry and pulpit ministry for uh over 40 years now.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's my life.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm called to it.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's what I do.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: But if I decide, God, I don't ever want to do this again, and I'm not going to, the way I think about God now is he wouldn't change, and he would still, certainly he would still love me absolutely just as much.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I believe he would still bless me, he would still favor me.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: He would still whatever it is that I see him doing now, he would do it tomorrow.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I see about God.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: My mind has changed.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Someone says, well, then why don't you do it, Rick?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the reason is because I really like this.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not out of compulsion, is it?
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's out of joy, it's out of love, it's out of the natural influence that is bringing an expression.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we all have those ways of expressing.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's all there's no separation.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at how good is God.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm talking about it.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I love, you know, this statement we heard, you know, there was a statement said from here, you know, some time back, and it was when Clark was speaking, just this one statement, I don't know if if anybody else even caught it, but it just boom, it just influenced me.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: God spoke to me and said, You're gonna be absolutely amazed at how good God really is.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: That just just caused me to leap with joy inside.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, oh, I'm gonna be surprised.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking so forward to that.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: Surprise me some more, Father.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: Let me see.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see more of this every day.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Show me how good you really are.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it seems like it's happening.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: And what's the result of that?
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the personal expression is a lot more joy, a lot more excitement about God and the things of God, and for this world, and for the people of the world, even the ones that are against everything I stand for.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because I see my father in a different way, and this father, and I see his heart.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: The father from the beginning, these separation things that we have.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, our separation from God.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: Chris mentioned it during praise and worship here, that that verse in Ephesians that says, that says, We were alienated from God, enemies in our minds.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: In our minds, in our minds, because of wicked words.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: We see Adam pulling away, separating, if you will, in his mind from God, and God is saying, Judy was was preaching this to me last night, the father was like, it's it's not like Adam, where are you?
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: Like, where are you?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be with you.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: Where are you with me right now?
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: And not in a condemning way, but in a calling, a longing way.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: Because the way it is in the kingdom is that I heard somebody say it this way in religion, man seeks God, but in the kingdom, in reality, God seeks man, doesn't he?
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: No separation in his heart.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Many of the lines that I drew between me and God were in my own mind.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: They were not true, they were not real.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: It just happened.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: It was just it was just the way I saw things, and I lived and felt that kind of a separation.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: What I'm seeing now is many of the separation, these lines that we're dividing between people and stuff like that.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: God doesn't see them.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: I see the heart of the Father.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's influencing me, it's changing me, and I'm loving the changes.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, in 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verse 16, 17, and 18.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it tells us how this mind renewal happens and it's it's it's beautiful, it's lovely.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_00: But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away that we can see.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is that we're seeing, to whatever degree of God's grace and his goodness that we're beholding right now, we're thankful because we've turned to the Lord.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what does that mean?
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: Many people have pursued God.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: I pursued God for 20 years and didn't see anything like what I see now.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what was it?
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_00: Were you not turned to the Lord?
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: I was turned to an image of God that I had.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't beholding the true God.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_00: The beholding of the true God, your eyes will be flooded with goodness, beauty, love, grace.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: The things that were mentioned today, no condemnation, no separation, no absolute joy and freedom.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: When the heart turns to the Lord.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_00: When you look at him, it's like Moses turning to look at that bush and say, I'm going to turn and look at this thing.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: Many times I'll encourage people, I say, if if these things are new to them, I say, just consider it.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: Just consider that maybe God really does love you, can love you this way.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: That he's that big and he's that good.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: When the heart turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_00: For the Lord is the spirit, and wherever the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord, who is the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because of what we're seeing about God, it's changing us.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: And in the next couple of weeks, we're going to get into more of those changes.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: Where is this wind going?
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: Where's where is it blowing?
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: What's it looking like, and what will it look like?
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've got some clues at least.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: And it's all wonderful, it's lovely.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_00: But this is where your mind renewal happens.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: See, it takes all of it off you.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's not according to your strength, it's all about responding to Him or looking at Him.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: We do it every time we worship, we sing songs that just talk about the beauty, the goodness, the freedom of God.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: And we behold that.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the heart turned in that direction.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the influence is happening.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: We're seeing something.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_00: And just seeing it takes over.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it starts taking you in places that sometimes your brain says, Whoa, is God really that good?
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: But the influence is saying, Behold, I'm even better than that.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: Let's all stand up.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Bless you guys.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: Bless you, bless you.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: Bless you in the name of Jesus.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: What a wonderful Father.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, all is well.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: God is wonderful.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: His plans have never changed, he's never changing course.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: And of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: We're in the best place we can be, in the Father's house, in the Father's hands, and the Father's heart.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: We'll have many challenges in this world.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: But God is with us and we'll never be alone.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: And we're absolutely loved.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: And there'll be there may be times that you still struggle with your perceived flaws and imperfections and uh uh that that stuff, it'll it'll it it eventually goes away.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: You keep changing the influence of God says, you know what, none of that stuff's even real, it doesn't even matter to me.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's me and you.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it's gonna be you and God all the time.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: And you're always gonna be loved, and you're always gonna be favored.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: And the blessing and goodness and abundance of God will always be upon your life, no matter what's going on in this world.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: Father, we love you.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you for your absolute goodness, your supply, your bigness, everything that you have done and are doing.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's just we uh we're seeing.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_00: You really do it all for us.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: You care, you love us.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: And for that we're grateful.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_00: We thank you in the name of the one who died to save us, Jesus.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah, don't you love him?
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: Have a beautiful Sunday, guys.